The Life and Lies of Tia Karim
by Logan the Awesome
Summary: A bit of background on Colonel Tia Karim. Won't say too much for fear that I might spoil the story.


**Hello. So I just watched Death of the Doctor (I know, I'm behind), and LOVED Laila Rouass in it. She was an interesting bad guy, and was also in one of my other favorite TV shows, Primeval! (If you haven't seen Primeval, her character dies after the third season). So, that's how I know Laila. Anyways, when I was watching the Sarah Jane Adventure episode(s), there was one line that Colonel Karim said that really got to me, and that's what inspired me to write this. I think that's it so...ENJOY!**

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><p>"<em>The Shansheeth can take me to the stars because there's nothing left for me on Earth…not anymore." <em>

Tia looked down slightly, memories starting to creep into her mind, but turned around so that Sarah Jane and Jo wouldn't suspect something.

"Accelerate the weave!" she commanded.

Tia walked over towards the Shansheeth tribe and watched as the magic of the Dream Weave began to happen. However, a painful flow of memories drifted into her mind as she thought about what she said to Ms Smith.

-November 20, 20009-

"Becker," she called in pain as she was pulled into the darkness by her leg. The vision of Becker was soon consumed by a cloud of darkness as she was carried away into nothingness. The claws of the future predator clawed deep into her leg, and she shrieked in pain. "BECKER!" she called in agony.

She heard shouts of orders escape from the man's mouth. He sounded frantic and on the verge of hysteria, but his voice slowly started to disappear. She tried with all her might to stay awake, to shout to him, pleading for help, but all that came out was a weak, "Becker, Becker" before she drifted into unconsciousness.

She woke up in an unfamiliar place. She was in what seemed to be a hospital bed, but not in an actual hospital. It looked more like a holding cell. It was a dark room, with not that much light, and barely anything in it, other than the bed.

"Ah, Ms Page," said a deep, gruff voice beside her. "You're awake."

Sarah turned at the mention of her name and looked at the speaker. He was in all black, and wore a red hat.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Colonel Richman, mam," said the man. "Head leader of U.N.I.T. that stands for United Nations Intelligence Trackforce, I'm pretty sure you've never heard of us, and that is what we want."

Sarah was confused. Why did this man want her at this…unit? What was going on? What happened to Becker? The anomaly? The horrific future and the future predators?

"You're confused, I see," said the man.

Sarah looked up at Richman and nodded. He seemed to know what was going on, for he summoned her to follow him. She did so, and the two walked out of the holding chamber. They traveled down numerous corridors and went through a few rooms until they reached their destination. Colonel Richman typed a quick code into a keypad by the door, which unlocked immediately.

"Ms Page, I believe you recognize the creature in front of you," he said as the approached an observation table.

Sarah recognized the creature almost immediately. Laying unconscious before her, was the future predator that had dragged her into the darkness—away from the anomaly home, the ARC, Becker…

"What you see in front of you is the monstrous creature that we found you with. Don't worry; it's dead now, so it won't hurt you."

Sarah's gaze didn't leave the creature as she circled the observation table. She noticed the broken neuroclamp by its right arm, and picked it up. She studied it for a bit, taking a great interest in it that she didn't notice Colonel Richman watching her carefully.

"It took a while to get that off," he said after a while, "it seemed to have controlled the creature in the past. The link was dead when we found it."

Sarah couldn't stand to see the creature dead; no matter how much it probably wanted her dead. It couldn't help it. It was just the creature's instincts! Nothing deserved such an awful punishment, like death.

"This isn't right," she whispered to herself, setting the neuroclamp back where she found it.

"I'm sorry?" asked the Colonel.

"This isn't right," she said louder, turning towards the Colonel. "No matter how dangerous this creature was, there must have been a better option than to just kill it."

"If we didn't, then it would be a danger to everyone in this facility, I couldn't risk that."

"Then why not put it back where you found it? Then, it wouldn't even be a problem to have."

"It's not exactly from this planet, if you know what I mean."

His voice was stern, which made Sarah flinch slightly, but she quickly regained herself. The two adults went into a "staring contest", as if daring the other to blink first. Sarah took this time to really study the Colonel; she never really took the time to do this earlier. He reminded her strangely of Becker—same stance, same hair color, same glare of annoyance. This man, though, had more spiky hair that stuck out from underneath his hat and he had sharper, green eyes instead of mysterious blue ones. He was also paler, and showed no humor in anything he did.

"So you're saying that the future predator is not from Earth?" she asked, still not breaking the eye contact.

"The species was brought to Earth in the year 2012 on December the 21st. They were spread throughout the entire world."

"You say that like it was in the past," Sarah said. "We still have a few years until that happens."

"That's because I helped stop them," he said. "Just last month, UNIT with some help from other supernatural forces went to prevent the creatures from ever coming to the planet. It took a long while, and we lost many great people, but they were stopped…mostly. There was a group of twenty that escaped to the year 2007, which was about the time when your mates discovered them for the first time."

Sarah was shocked. How did he know about the ARC? It was a secret government facility that not even all of the government knew about. Before Sarah could even ask the question, he was met with her answer.

"UNIT knows about all secret government facilities in the nation," he stated plainly. "Torchwood, the ARC, we know everything about the Doctor, and so forth."

Sarah was lost at Torchwood. What was Torchwood, and who the hell was this doctor? She was so confused, but she tried not to show it.

"So what do I have to do with this?" she asked.

Colonel Richman shrugged. "Nothing," he said simply. "You just got in the way is all. We can't go forward in time again; it would create too many paradoxes. So, we've been creating numerous anomalies from 2007, all the way to today. We're trying to catch the last of those Funotices so it seems like the never came to Earth."

"Funo…what?" Sarah asked.

"The "future predators", as you call them," he explained.

"So, if I'm not needed anymore in this…project, then I can go home, right?"

"You could," he said, "but it wouldn't be the wisest decision."

"How come?"

"You were legally said to have died in the year 2009 on the twentieth of November, the day that we found you with the Funotice. The anomaly, though, that we took led to the year 2010 on the fifteenth of July, and you've been out for a good few weeks, which leads us to today's date of August the fourth of 2010."

Sarah took a long while to process all of the information into her head. She had been supposedly dead for ten months, even though she had only been unconscious for a few weeks. Where was everyone right now? Was the ARC still standing? How was the team? Did Abby, Connor, and Danny ever make it home safely? What about Becker?

"You okay?" Colonel Richman asked, showing a slight glimpse of concern.

"Yeah," said Sarah plainly. "Just not use to it, I suppose, being legally dead when I'm really not."

"It'll be okay," he said, his voice softening just a bit, but disappearing immediately once he turned around. "We can set you up with a job at UNIT, if you wish, and give you a new identity. You can pick whatever name you like, as long as it isn't some obvious repeat."

Sarah nodded. There wasn't much else that she could do. She was stuck, at the time being, and had no other path she could really take. She followed Colonel Richman into another lab, and soon began the long process of changing her identity completely.

-Mid September, 2010-

After a month and a half of being known as "Tia Karim", that's what Sarah started to respond to, as well as her actual name. Her job at UNIT was nice, but it didn't compare to the ARC. Sure, she had made new friends and her adventures were just as thrilling, but she always felt as if there was still a part of herself that still belong to the ARC.

Colonel Richman was a decent man, if anything he was nice. She learned his first name, Joseph, within the first week, and called him that every once in a while just to annoy him. He called her Tia in front of everyone, but when it was just the two of them, he would refer to her as "Sarah Page", saying that the name suited her better than Tia Karim. If Sarah didn't know better, she could have sworn that Joseph had taken a fancy in her while working for UNIT, but she decided to ignore it. She wasn't really into starting any sort of relationship like that anytime soon. After what happened with Becker, she didn't feel like having another heart-break anytime soon.

While at UNIT, Sarah had progressed her way up rankings like nobody's business. Since she really had no life outside her work, she put all of her time and effort into it what she did at UNIT. So, she quickly went from the "secretary that brought coffee" to "Computer Technician" to "Computer Head" to "Call Team" to "Head of Gold Call Team" to "Second Head" of the base where she worked at. This meant that Sarah could really do any job in the UNIT facility that she wanted, and everyone would be okay with it.

One day, Sarah was leading her Gold Team on a call in a local park. She was on her own, scouting the area, when she saw some locals by a bench, looking at a computer screen. There were two men and one girl, and they seemed to be in deep conversation. Sarah also noticed that they had paintball-like guns in their hands. She sighed, annoyed because she had sent everyone out of the area hours ago, and these people clearly had no idea what the park rules were for weapons in the area.

She made her way to the group and called to the three of them. One of the heads went up. It was of one of the men. He had sandy brown hair that was cut short, a faint trace of a beard, and blue eyes. He seemed to be fit as well, and rolled his eyes at the sight of her. Taking a bit of offence, Sarah walked faster towards the locals, trying to look professional.

"Excuse me; my name is Tia Karim, second head of the Area 5 UNIT headquarters. I believe that we evacuated the area hours ago, making it temporary government property. So I would suggest that you leave before I arrest you."

"Do worry," said the man in an Irish accent. "We're from the government too, and we have the same amount of ability to access this area as you lot do."

"What government facility is this?" Sarah asked, not believing this man and wanting to see what excuse he could come up with.

"We can't tell you," the man said, "its top secret."

"I assure you, I've probably heard of it. I know of all the secret government projects in the United Kingdom."

Sarah waited patiently as she watched the Irish man look behind him at the other two. The girl, who had chin-length blonde hair, shrugged her shoulders and the man next to her nodded slightly. Sarah couldn't help but notice how familiar they seemed, but decided not to think about it too much. The Irish man turned to face her once more.

"The Anomaly Research Center or ARC for short," he said plainly.

Sarah froze. That was not the answer she had been expecting. The man showed her his ARC identification, which clearly stated that he wasn't lying. _Matt Anderson-32; Zoologist and ARC Team Leader_. She looked back at the two others, still sitting on the bench, and was able to recognize them. _"Connor Temple and Abby Maitland," _she thought to herself_. "They made it back."_

Sarah could feel tears forming in her eyes, but was able to hide them instantly. She was just glad that her friends were back home, safe. She did notice one thing, though. Becker wasn't with them. Did he make it back after the mission? Was he okay?

"Very well, then," she said, finding her voice. Sarah then turned around on her heel and walked away from the new ARC team, confused, and curious about many things.

-At the ARC-

Connor had just been able to sneak of his Prospero Lab so he could find Abby. Something had been on his mind since the mission earlier in the morning, and he wanted her opinion on it. Luckily, he knew just where to find his girlfriend—the menagerie. She was sitting at a table and petting Rex.

"Abby," said Connor as he approached her. Abby turned around and smiled at him. "Listen, I need your opinion about something. Did you think there was anything…familiar about Colonel Karim this morning?"

"I want to say there was," she said back, "but I couldn't have been. Becker said she died on the rescue mission. It can't be her."

"Could be a doppelganger," Connor said. "Like that one actor Jess said looked like me. He was in that Alice in Wonderland thing in the states, remember? He even sounded like me."

"We should ask Becker," said Abby. "Maybe he wasn't telling us everything."

Like Abby, Connor knew exactly where to find Captain Becker. He was in the weaponry, holding his beloved gun that he hadn't even touched since the ARC got the EMDs. He liked holding the familiar handgun like he did back when he was allowed to. Now, if Matt ever caught him with one, his job was at stake, much less his head.

"Becker," said Abby, getting him to cast his gaze away from the gun and put his full attention to Connor and Abby. "We have a question."

Becker laid his gun down next to him. "What's up?" he asked.

"It's about Sarah," said Connor.

The couple could see the obvious sadness in Becker's eyes at the mention of Sarah. There had been a rumor going around the ARC after the Terror Bird incident with Christine Johnson and the artifact, that the two fancied each other. Connor and Danny even had a bet going to see who would crack first. Becker denied it whenever asked, but always tried to hide a small smile.

"We want to know," continued Abby, "if she actually…died."

"Of course she did," Becker retorted, standing up from his char. "Just think, if she didn't, then she would have found a way back by now."

"It took us a year, Becker," reminded Connor, "and the fact that we found the other anomaly creator was plain dumb luck."

"But she was left with the creator or the anomaly creator," said Becker. "She would have figured out how to work it again, and worked on it until she found a way home. She wouldn't just abandon the team! She would never abandon the thought of getting you guys and Danny home, the ARC, me…"

Silence filled the armory. Connor and Abby had not been expecting this type of reaction. Sure, they new Becker still cared about Sarah, but after seeing how things were going between him and Jess…He seemed happier. They thought he had moved on. Becker sighed and sat back down.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I have tried to get over it, Jess has helped tremendously, I just—I saw someone, today. She was in the park, and she just reminded me so much of Sarah. The memory came back, and so did the guilt."

Surprised at Mr. Hilary "Keeps-His-Emotions-to-Himself" Becker's sudden expression of emotions, silence filled the room once again as Connor and Abby tried to register what just happened. It was Connor, who spoke up first.

"You have been hanging out with Jess _way _too much lately, mate."

Becker cracked a smile. "She is my girlfriend, Temple," he reminded Connor.

"We know," said Abby, "but she has turned you into a big softie."

Becker gave Abby a death glare, which caused her and Connor to break out laughing. Becker playfully hit Abby in the arm, which caused her to laugh even harder. The laughing soon died down, and Becker asked the couple what they wanted to ask him.

"Oh" said Connor, realizing the real reason he and Abby had come to see the Captain. "Right, well. You weren't the only one who thought they saw Sarah."

"So I'm not crazy," Becker stated.

"She came to us and asked us to leave; said it was government business. Now that I think about it, she even sounded a bit like Sarah; a bit harsher tone, but I guess she was just playing the part."

"Then she did abandon us," concluded Becker. "She never came back. She probably didn't want to come back."

"Becker, I'm sure there was some reason she couldn't come back. Sarah would never abandon us willingly. Something must have happened."

"But what?" he asked.

-UNIT Base-

Sarah had changed out of her UNIT uniform and into a pair of jeans and a white top. She stuffed her uniform into her locker, as well as her UNIT weapons and gear. She took out her purse, her ID, and cell phone and shut her locker shut. Sarah walked out of the locker room and went down the hall to Joseph's office.

"I'm going out," she said, once she got there. "I'll be back in a few."

"Why a sudden urge to go out?" Joseph asked. "You have never been outside this base unless you've been on a call."

"Just got to grab some things," she quickly lied. "I'll be back soon, don't worry."

It took a while, but Sarah finally reached her destination. She looked at the vast building in front of her and took a deep breath. This was it. Sarah quickly walked up to the front door of the facility and showed her ID to the security guard.

"But…I thought…this can't be…"

Sarah simply nodded, and the guard let her inside the facility. She made her way to the lift in front of her and stepped inside. She pressed the number "7" and waited as the doors closed shut, and then the lift slowly made its way up.

Sarah stepped out of the lift and looked around at the new ARC. It was amazing! Sure, the ceiling came down lower in this one than the old one, but it still look incredible.

"Colonel Karim?" asked a familiar Irish brogue.

Sarah turned towards the speaker, and saw Matt Anderson. He looked confused, and she knew why. _Why was a UNIT Colonel at the ARC?_

"Mr. Anderson," she said professionally. "I'm just here to…"

She slowly trailed off when she saw the sight in front of her. She saw Becker, sitting at the new ADD, and talking to a young woman. She was sitting in the chair as well, and she was giggling at something Becker said. Becker smiled, and gave the woman a quick kiss on the lips. Sarah knew who this young woman was.

Sure, Sarah wasn't expecting Becker and herself to become…something. Heck, it had been ten months for the poor man. If he was as much of an emotional wreck ten months ago as he was when Connor, Abby, and Danny disappeared, then he was probably an emotional wreck. With all of this in thought, though, she still felt a shot of pain in her chest when she saw Becker with the other woman.

"Colonel Karim?" asked Matt, waving his hand in front of Sarah's face.

Sarah snapped out of her gaze and looked up at Matt once more.

"I'm just here to make sure you weren't lying earlier today," she covered quickly. "Not my idea, my boss's."

Matt nodded, understanding where she was coming from. There was something slightly familiar about Colonel Karim. Sure, he had never seen her before today, but she still seemed…familiar.

"I'll just be going them," said Sarah, now snapping Matt out of his own thoughts. "Sorry to bother you."

When Sarah returned to UNIT, she returned to being her hold self. She worked from early in the morning to late at night. Work seemed to be the only thing that could take her mind off of the ARC. So if that's what it took, then that's what she had to do to forget. Joseph had tried to get her to open up, but she refused to do so. It hurt too much to talk about, and she didn't want to appear weak in front of her boss.

After visiting the ARC, Sarah no longer responded to her actual name. She insisted on being called "Tia" though Joseph still called her Sarah. She completely abandoned her identity as "Sarah Page", and pretended that she never existed. Tia no longer wanted anything to do with Sarah Page, the ARC, the anomalies, and she wanted to try and forget about Becker. More than anything, she wanted to escape. She wanted to leave Earth behind and go somewhere else.

Her opportunity came in late September, when UNIT received a call from a tribe a called the Shansheeth. There were three of them, and they asked for help with the promise of the Doctor. Tia had read about the Doctor in the reports, and from what she read, she was just the man she needed to help her escape. Sadly, Joseph found the Shansheeth's story suspicious, and didn't accept their offer.

"Well, why not?" she asked Joseph. "And we'll get the Doctor out of this."

"We can't trust them," Joseph whispered to Tia. "We can only trust the alien species that we've made peace treaties with. If not, everything the Earth has to offer is at risk."

"Then we'll just have to be on our guard, and watch them closely."

"Sarah," he warned.

"That's not my name, Joseph," Tia said darkly.

"It very much is, _Sarah_. This isn't like you. What's happened?"

Tia turned away from Joseph, not in the mood to talk to him. Joseph sighed in annoyance and turned to the hologram of the Shansheeth. He kindly denied their offer, and said that they would just have to try and find the Doctor without their help. As the hologram disappeared, Tia stormed off to her office.

She sat at her desk, twirling a knife in her hand, and watched as the blood from her arm trickled down the blade. That was probably her one chance; gone, forever. _Why does that bastard have to ruin everything! If he wasn't in charge, then I would be in charge, and if I was in charge, then we would be plotting with the Shansheeth right now! I would be plotting with them by now, if I was in charge, and we would be anywhere in the universe within the week! If only—_

"—I was in charge," Tia said aloud, as if realizing the perfect solution.

Her plan was simple. She was able to access some fatal poisoning from the stores and poured it into a cup of tea. She wore gloves while setting the whole thing up, so her fingerprints didn't give anything away, and she was extra cautions of the security cameras. As she brought the tea to his office, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt, but tried to not let that stop her. She noticed that the door to his office was opened, which is usually never was. Curious to see if something was going on, she crept by the door and listened.

"Listen, Sarah…no, she hates it when I call her that. Tia, listen…no! That doesn't sound right! Her name isn't Tia…Sarah, I know that you hate it when I call you this, but Tia just doesn't fit you. Anyways, I just wanted to ask if you were okay…no that's not what I want to ask her. Damn it man, you want to ask the bloody woman out for a drink!"

Tia was shocked at what she heard. She couldn't have been hearing Joseph correctly. The man, who was her god-damned boss, and bugged the living hell out of her, wanted to ask her out. Tia quickly composed herself and prepared to put her plan into action.

"Sar—Tia!" exclaimed Joseph at the sight of his employee entering his office.

Tia took a deep breath, and tried to stop her hand from shaking.

"I—I brought you some t—tea."

Joseph took it cautiously, looking at Tia with concern. He sat down in his desk and asked if she was okay. Tia nodded, and assured him that she was fine. She quickly left the office soon after, just as her boss took a sip of the tea.

-October, 2010-

Tia watched as the key started to form before her eyes. To say she was excited was an understatement. She was thrilled, and she couldn't wait to leave Earth and travel the stars! Heck, with a Time Machine, she could go back (or…forward) in time to when the Funotice attacked the rescue mission. She could change that day so that she never did get carried away. She would still be at the ARC; the way it should be. To her horror, though, the TARDIS key started to disappear.

"We need that key," she hysterically shouted. "What is happening?"

"The device is overloading," informed on of the Shansheeth. "Too many memories; too many!"

"Then fix it!" Tia said as she ran to the controls. "Bring that key back!" Her chance to get away was slowly slipping from her fingers, and she was not ready to give in just quite yet. She frantically pressed whatever buttons she could, trying to get the Dream Weave to stop, but no matter what she did, it wouldn't stop.

"Dream Weaver starting to self-destruct," the machine informed the room.

"We need that key!" said another Shansheeth.

Tia ran to the door's controls and scanned the screen frantically, trying to find a loop-hole out of the situation. "I can't unseal the doors!" she yelled.

The controls then sparked, and she stepped back quickly. _This can't be happening. The plan was working fine until that Doctor showed up! _She ran back to the controls and scanned the screen once more. "The power line's gone!"

Again, the machine sparked, and the force caused Tia to fall to the ground. She saw the two companions get inside the empty coffin. From outside the room, she heard one of the grosk workers counting down the seconds until the Dream Weave self-destructed. "Wait for me," she called to the companions, as a last attempt to survive, but was met with no reply.

In the last three seconds of her living, Tia's life flashed before her eyes. The early days went by the fastest; school days, birthdays, family gatherings, college, her college sweetheart; Stephen Hart, Stephen's break-up with her, feeling lost and lonely for days, etc.

Her next flashes were longer and more elaborate; archeology digs, getting fired from that team for not following orders, working at the British Museum, giving lectures to school kids, her first encounter with the ARC, her first encounter with Becker, her first mission with the Terror Birds, kissing Becker on the cheek and saying "you're my hero", realizing that she fancied Becker, the missions that followed, loosing Danny, Abby, and Connor, decoding Helen's diary, helping Becker through his emotional wreck stage, the first three rescue missions.

Then there were the really vivid flashes; kissing Becker properly for the first time, the final rescue mission, waking up in the UNIT base, meeting Joseph for the first time, changing her name to Tia Karim, working extremely hard for the first month and a half at UNIT, seeing Matt, Connor and Abby at the park while on a call, visiting the ARC, seeing Becker with someone else, the pain that follow after, more pain, and even more pain.

Finally, there were flashes of the more recent events; killing her boss, having another conference with the Shansheeth, planning a way to gain access into the TARDIS, locating all of the Doctor's close friends and companions, going to Sarah Jane Smith's house, slightly regretting what she was doing when she saw the look of pain on Sarah Jane's face, coming so close to having the key.

Tia realized what she had done. This was all her fault. If she had only listened to Joseph, and not let her emotions control her actions. The lust of power had gotten to her head. She wasn't Sarah Page anymore, she was…Tia Karim. She was complete opposite of Sarah Page, and she no longer wished to be that person. She wasn't Tia, and she never was; she was Sarah Page.

"_Who are you?"_

"_Doctor Page."_

"_You must be Sarah Page." _

"_Doctor Page, you cannot talk about anything you saw today, is that clear?"_

"_Sarah, you're with me."_

"_Sarah, move." _

"_Ah Ms Page, you're awake." _

"_SARAH!"_

Sarah saw the Dream Weave explode, and a burst of pain ran through her body, but she didn't seem to care. Slowly, the scene of flames and destruction faded from her view. Sarah Page welcomed death with open arms, and ready to experience the adventure that lay ahead.

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><p><strong>This turned out long then I expected, but I hope you liked it. Please tell me what you think in a REVIEW! Thanks!<strong>

**~Logan ;)  
><strong>


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